In a scathing critique of Nigeria's contemporary internal security architecture, iconic human rights advocate and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has issued an uncompromising legal warning to federal authorities and state governors, declaring that negotiating with or financially rewarding active terrorists and bandits constitutes a heavy criminal offense under the country's current laws.
Falana dropped the legal bombshell while delivering a fiery keynote address at the Amnesty International Second Annual General Meeting held in Abuja on Saturday, June 13, 2026.
He stated that the systemic political practice of inviting lawless elements to round-table conferences is a flagrant violation of national legislation.
The veteran jurist noted that it has become public knowledge that top-tier state actors routinely hold secret logistical meetings with violent syndicates, often culminating in the controversial granting of state pardons and undisclosed cash gifts to thousands of so-called "repentant" criminals.
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Falana argued that because groups like Boko Haram, ISWAP, and various rural bandit groups have been formally proscribed under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, the state lacks any legal authority to pamper, shelter, or forgive them outside standard judicial prosecution.
"A person who knowingly arranges, manages, assists in arranging or managing, participates in a meeting or an activity... concerned or connected with an act of terrorism or terrorist group... commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of at least 20 years," Falana noted, citing Section 22 of the Terrorism Act.
He maintained that the continuous allocation of public funds as financial pacification to armed cartels only serves to subsidize the purchase of more high-caliber military weaponry, thereby prolonging asymmetric warfare across the country.
Falana called on the Attorney General of the Federation to immediately halt all back-channel discussions with proscribed actors and instead deploy the total kinetic apparatus of the state to arrest, try, and permanently isolate mass murderers, emphasizing that no government official is above the penal boundaries of the anti-terrorism act.
#FemiFalana #AntiTerrorismLaw #AmnestyInternational #BanditNegotiations #BokoHarman #Section22 #AbujaAGM #LegalWarning
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